Week one of the AFL finals were a ripper, but it still remains anyone’s guess who will take home this year’s premiership.
In the opening round, minor premiers Port Adelaide outgunned Geelong and won the match by 16 points. That sees the Power advance to the first preliminary, which will be played in week three at Adelaide Oval.
The Brisbane Lions are also heading to the second preliminary final after defying the odds and winning against premiership favourites Richmond by 15 points. The win put an end to the Lions 15-game losing streak against the Tigers.
In a go-hard or go-home elimination match, St Kilda managed to fend off the Western Bulldogs until the final minutes with a gripping three-point victory. The Saints will now face Richmond on Friday, October 9 at 7:50pm AEDT at Metricon Stadium.
In the biggest upset of the elimination rounds, the West Coast Eagles lost to Collingwood in front of their home crowd in Perth. The Magpies snatched the win in the final minutes, scraping through with a one-point win. Collingwood will now meet Geelong at the Gabba on Saturday, October 10 at 7:40pm AEDT.
Every finals game will be broadcast live online and on free-to-air. Here’s how you can watch it all unfold before the grand final on October 24.
How to watch AFL 2020 finals online
The best place to catch the semi-finals live online would be on Kayo. This streaming service is dedicated to sports so there won’t be any distractions, with the exception of a few ad breaks perhaps.
The advantage of watching AFL on Kayo is versatility – you’ll get live interactive stats while the matches are happening, the ability to watch up to three other streams at the same time in SplitView and have all the AFL matches available on-demand later if you happen to miss it all. If you just want to check the highlights, Kayo Mini videos are bite-sized clips of all the best bits.
And, if you haven’t signed up yet, you get a 14-day free trial before you need to pay your monthly subscription. If you’d like to know more about the streaming service, take a look at our in-depth Kayo Sports review.
Kayo Sports basic package | 14-day free trial, then AU$25 per month
Kayo’s Basic package will let you live stream and catch up on over 50 sports on two devices at the same time. You’ll have access to Kayo’s features such as SplitView, and you can cancel any time as there’s no lock-in contract.View Deal
How to live stream AFL 2020 finals for free
Channel Seven has broadcast rights to all the games during Finals Week. They’ll be available to watch live and free on Channel 7 or 7Mate, depending on which state you’re in.
That means, you’ll also be able to stream the games on the Seven Network’s catch-up app, 7Plus. This platform is available on a web browser, and has apps for both Android and iOS.
How to live stream AFL 2020 finals from abroad
If you’re a footy fan who happens to be living outside of Australia, New Zealand or the Pacific Islands, you needn’t despair. You can watch every single AFL game this season no matter where you are on the Watch AFL streaming service.
Like Kayo, Watch AFL is also a subscription service and has three different plans to choose from:
Weekly: US$17 / £13 / €17 / AU$20
Monthly: US$33 / £25 / €33 / AU$39
Annual: US$165 / £130 / €155 / AU$199
For the qualifiers, Watch AFL has a new option called the Finals Pass, which temporarily replaces the monthly plan. It gives customers the ability to watch all the matches during Finals Week as well as the grand final live.
Watch AFL Finals Pass | US$33 / £25 / €33 / AU$39
The contents of this streaming service are only available to view outside of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, but a subscription can be purchased from anywhere. It includes every match in the Premiership, including the fixtures from the Women’s League. Watch AFL allows you to pause and rewind live matches, and also allows you to download matches for offline viewing. While you can watch the livestream on desktop via the website, the Watch AFL app is also available for iOS, Android and Apple TV. You can even cast onto a TV via AirPlay or Google Chromecast.View Deal